Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/761

Book XIII. If abuse of authority, vexations, and exactions, are not capital in the jurisprudence of France, they ought not to have been inserted, as efficacious, in the sentence of death. The betraying of interests required that the intention of ruining them should be proved by incontestable facts; but Mr. Lally neither gave intelligence to the English, of which they could take advantage, nor led or commanded his troops to services of destruction without the probability of advantage from their efforts, nor received bribes to influence the general plan of his conduct. The invective of his declaration to Colonel Coote, when offering to surrender, shews how little favour he expected from the English government; and he had personally offended Mr. Pigot in his correspondence. Nevertheless, the imputation of having sold Pondicherry, opened the cry against him in France. Mr. D'Estaign, and Crillon deposed honourably of him. Nor was the sentence of his judges unanimous. Mr. Siguier, admired for his eloquence, and Mr. Pellot, for his application and the clearness of his understanding, declared their conviction of his innocence; another of his judges acknowledged, that he was not condemned on any particular fact, but on the whole together. Mr. Voltaire, who had well considered the cause, has not scrupled to call his death a murder committed with the sword of Justice. Mr. Lally constantly claimed the right of having his military conduct tried by a board of general officers. They would have seen his errors with discernment, and weighed them with impartiality. That the recall of Mr. Bussy from Salabadjing, and the substituting the insufficient abilities of Mr. Conflans, produced the loss of Masulipatam and the northern provinces. That the siege of Madrass was wrong in the intention, and equally defective in the execution; but that Mr. Lally expected no abler resistance here than he had met at Fort St. David. That the separation of the army, by the large detachment sent to Seringham, which enabled the English to extend their barrier to the south of the Paliar by the acquisition of Vandivash and Carangoly, was contrary to the sound principles of war; but that the motive was, the hope of relieving the want of